Marvel fans were surprised by the appearance of MODOK in one of the trailers for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
What was more surprising was the fact thatthe villain is played by Corey Stroll, who was previously cast as Yellowjacket in the first Ant-Man movie. Now, the long-time Ant-Man series director Peyton Reed has come forward to explain the deal between MODOK and Yellowjacket.
Apparently, the cybernetic being is what became of Yellowjacket after his apparent demise in Ant-Man.
In a recent interview with Screenrant, Reed confirmed that MODOK is in fact Darren Cross aka Yellowjacket. The villain has been waiting for an opportunity to get back at Ant-Man after his defeat in the first film.
M.O.D.O.K. has been waiting in the wings for a while,” Reed said. “We hit an idea of, as we were going to bring our family into the Quantum Realm [and] in contact with Kang [the Conqueror], how could Kang know about the Ant Family? And then it occurred to me, ‘What happens to Yellowjacket at the end of the first Ant-Man?'”
Yellowjacket is the main villain of 2015’s Ant-Man. He wears a weaponized version of Ant-Man’s suit after Darren Cross, a former business partner of Hank Pym, successfully copied Pym’s technology. Although Cross had successfully created his own version of the Ant-Man suit, it had a flaw that made wearers wearer become mentally unstable. Cross initially planned to sell the micro-sized super soldier suit to criminal organizations such as HYDRA and Ten Rings.
Pym recruited Scott Lang to become the new Ant-Man in a bid to stop Cross. Ant-Man defeated Yellowjacket by shrinking down to the atomic level to destroy the internal components of the suit. As a result, Cross was shrunk down uncontrollably until no trace was left of him.
Reed pitched the link between MODOK and Yellowjacket to Marvel execs Stephen Broussard and Kevin Feige. The director then spoke to Stroll about the idea.
“I remember calling Corey Stoll and talking to him about ‘What if this happened?’ and him giggling on the other line,” Reed shared. Stoll responded, “If you guys do that, I’m in,” Reed explained that the actor “loved” the idea as a “comics nerd” himself.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opens in theaters on February 17.
